President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order revoking the Trump administration’s travel ban restricting visitors from predominantly Muslim and African countries.
Biden’s executive order – promising to overturn former President Donald Trump’s travel ban on day one of his administration – instructs the foreign ministry to resume processing visas for people from countries such as Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela and Nigeria.
Trump’s first travel ban, which went into effect on January 27, 2017, has created chaos and confusion around the world. Lawyers and protesters stormed U.S. airports in an effort to help stranded travelers who were trapped in the ban and faced deportation. The ban would keep families and refugees out of the country for years.
Harsha Panduranga, a lawyer at the Brennan Center’s Liberty & National Security program, said it was a very important first step for the Biden government.
“This is really a big problem,” Panduranga told BuzzFeed News. “Thousands of people have been separated from their loved ones, and Biden has done a good job of openly rejecting the policy as a racial and religious ban.”
Panduranga called on the new government to move as quickly as possible to create a clear guide to reversing the travel ban.
Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Biden’s executive order corrects the course of so many disrupted lives in the US and abroad. The Biden government is also sending the message that anti-Muslim immigrant policies will not be tolerated, Billoo added.
“Tens of thousands of individuals affected now have the opportunity to be with their families during their cherished and challenging times,” Billoo said in a statement. “Although we know our work is far from over, today we celebrate the heroic efforts of so many people over the past few years in our effort to lift the Muslim and African bans.”
To undo the ‘damage’ caused by the travel ban, as the Biden government puts it, will reverse more than just Trump’s executive action and resume visa processing. Biden’s executive order also instructs the U.S. government to draw up a plan within 45 days to address the cases of people who got stuck in the waiver process, which provides exceptions for those who need visas and would otherwise qualify for one. To get.
Biden’s executive order also calls on the Secretary of State to develop a proposal so that people who have refused visas because of Trump’s ban can reconsider their applications. The plan should consider whether to reopen the applications for immigrant visas that were denied due to two of Trump’s travel bans and whether it is necessary to charge an additional fee to process them, the executive order reads.
A 2019 analysis by the Cato Institute, a DC-based libertarian think tank, found that the travel ban kept about 15,000 spouses and adopted children of U.S. citizens apart.
The first ban and a subsequent version were legally challenged and rejected by lower courts, but the Supreme Court upheld a third iteration in 2018. The travel restrictions were later extended to six countries, four of which were in Africa.
People from 13 countries eventually faced travel restrictions, including Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea, Venezuela, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania.
One of the Supreme Court’s justifications for upholding Trump’s ban was that his presidential proclamation included a waiver program that provided exceptions. The Bridge Initiative, a research project housed at Georgetown University that focuses on anti-Muslim sentiment, found that 74% of the visa waiver was rejected between December 2017 and April 2020 for all countries affected by the ban .
Opponents of Trump’s ban say it discriminates against Muslims. In 2015, his campaign issued a statement calling for a total and complete closure of Muslims entering the US until the country “can figure out what’s going on.”
Aarti Kohli, executive director of Asian Laws Promoting Justice – Asian Law Caucus, said Biden’s recall of Trump’s travel ban represents a victory for their communities and the people who oppose it.
“Four years ago we saw people of all races and religions come together to plead against the ban, which separated families and promoted lives,” Kohli said in a statement. “As we celebrate the result of the upheaval, we will continue to press the Biden administration to act courageously, repair the damage of the past four years and do justice to our immigrant communities. ”